That might be pushing it. But I settled on 96K as a workable compromise for now. I am also working with a Web developer to make it possible for two different files, low-res and high-res, to be offered. For now I think 96K has less digital noise.
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stephen haldane
Paranormal Novice
sorry but I don't know the teccy stuff but it took nearly 10 mins to download the tim good show when it usually takes about 1min ....and I have listened to all the shows bar about 2!!!!!!!!!!!
Maybe a lot of traffic. The file size is halfway between the older 64K and the more recent 128K.
stephen haldane
Paranormal Novice
cheers Gene..........since I have you online Happy Hogmany(new years eve in Scotland!)......keep up the good work and when are you going to get Dr.Richard Alan millar on the show???....I have listened to the interviews he has done this year and they are dynamite!!!....have posted a thread or two asking your knowledgeable members about him but no reply's!!!...is he the real deal??????????
Jimi Justin
Paranormal Novice
Compromise is good. I dont need audiophile quality to listen to a talk show but when I can actually hear the sampling rate at work thats worth waiting extra time for the download. It only takes me like a minute or two to download the show on my 5 year old laptop with standard comcast internet connection anyway. Im not sure why other people are having such lengthy download times.
Jimi Justin
Paranormal Novice
That is really hard to believe.
ChrisJohnsen
Paranormal Adept
Hi Gene,
I'm late on this but the one pet peeve I've always had with the show (listener since 2009) is the audio quality. The show never sounded very good at 64K and sounded demonstrably better at 128K. It's 2014 and I find it hard to believe that a roughly 200MB file takes that long for most people to download. The show at 128K downloaded in less than 15 seconds on my broadband connection. I understand that not everyone has a fast internet connection but why degrade the sound quality of the show when you have the opportunity to have it sound great at 128K? If GCN is giving you that option, I say take it and sound as good as possible. I certainly noticed, and appreciated, the difference in the sound through my Sonos, headphones and home stereo system. I see that you've dialed it back to 96K for now. I'll chime in on that once I've listened to a handful of shows. Keep up the great work!
All the best,
Chris
I'm late on this but the one pet peeve I've always had with the show (listener since 2009) is the audio quality. The show never sounded very good at 64K and sounded demonstrably better at 128K. It's 2014 and I find it hard to believe that a roughly 200MB file takes that long for most people to download. The show at 128K downloaded in less than 15 seconds on my broadband connection. I understand that not everyone has a fast internet connection but why degrade the sound quality of the show when you have the opportunity to have it sound great at 128K? If GCN is giving you that option, I say take it and sound as good as possible. I certainly noticed, and appreciated, the difference in the sound through my Sonos, headphones and home stereo system. I see that you've dialed it back to 96K for now. I'll chime in on that once I've listened to a handful of shows. Keep up the great work!
All the best,
Chris
E
ElmoFUD
Guest
@Jimi Justin Just to clarify. That testing--and my memory is hazy as to the source; I thought it was reputable at the time--was for voice only. Not music! Looking at this thread (which I started but was turned into a poll without my knowledge but that's okay) maybe I have discovered that audio is like esoterica in that sometimes the fervency of belief wins a mind rather than the dry data. Or not...
Randall
J. Randall Murphy
The last show ( 2014 03 02 ) has what sounds like audio compression phase shifting that caused me to immediately skip past the commercials. The discussion segments were less noticeable, but after becoming aware of the effect, it made the show less enjoyable. I'm probably also noticing it more than others because I often listen with headphones late at night.
We have no control over what GCN does. Our enhancements/changes are minimal.
Randall
J. Randall Murphy
The artifacts were on the downloaded version. Whether or not you have any control of that I don't know. How you define "minimal" I don't know. I'm just describing the artifacts as I hear them. Maybe nobody else notices or cares. I don't hear it in all the downloads.
kanakaris
Paranormal Adept
How about removing the adds from the show archives ?Last show had 45 minutes.Do they have to be on the archived shows ?
I have send links to the show to friends all over the world , but boy do i receive some comments....
There are so many other archived shows on the net , but i know of no one that keep the adds...
But the show keeps improving every week ...
I have send links to the show to friends all over the world , but boy do i receive some comments....
There are so many other archived shows on the net , but i know of no one that keep the adds...
But the show keeps improving every week ...
The answer is that we can't remove the ads, which cover about 40 minutes per episode.
The reason is explained in our show FAQ:
The Official Paracast FAQ | The Paracast Community Forums
The reason is explained in our show FAQ:
The Official Paracast FAQ | The Paracast Community Forums
Fedora Chronicles
Paranormal Maven
You get what you pay for. There are some great podcasts out there that I can't listen to because it sounds like someone recorded a telephone conversation via two paper cups and a string. If the quality of The Paracast was that bad, I would stop listening.
To be faire, Eric, we are constrained by connection quality. Sometimes a guest only has a wireless phone, and most sound miserable, although there are some notable exceptions, such as high-end Samsungs and iPhones, when the carrier allows a higher voice bandwidth. We've also run into problems with Skype connections, and sometimes the guest simply has a bad mic. But we weigh that against the quality of the guest and cope.
Fedora Chronicles
Paranormal Maven
Oh, I totally understand and I'm sorry if I misspoke. All of the Paracast episodes have been great in terms of audio quality because the MP3 quality is there. Even your episodes with people calling in via cell or land-lines are OK. Every episode I've listened to is "FM Quality" or "CD Quality"
There are those podcasts that have really low MP3 quality to start with - they're rendered at around 64K and it sounds horrible. Worse than "AM quality" to the point I can't even hear what people are saying. That's never been a problem on The Paracast.
Whatever it is now - is perfect. Don't change a thing. If it's not broken don't fix it.
There are those podcasts that have really low MP3 quality to start with - they're rendered at around 64K and it sounds horrible. Worse than "AM quality" to the point I can't even hear what people are saying. That's never been a problem on The Paracast.
Whatever it is now - is perfect. Don't change a thing. If it's not broken don't fix it.
Bananas
Paranormal Maven
Something I've noticed, is that the adds have higher volume than the show itself. It's incredibly annoying when you have a guest that speaks a bit quietly, and you have to keep changing the volume unless you want tinfoilhatdave telling you to buy a bunker REALLY loud. Or maybe I just have too sensitive hearing, anyone else notice this?
Aha loud commercials are the bane of radio and TV shows everywhere. Supposedly it's not allowed by the FCC, but radio station board monitors don't always pay attention. The episodes we submit are "normalized" for fairly consistent volume levels. After that, it's up to the network to manage equal levels between show content and spots. I have no control over that unfortunately.
But even when actual levels are consistent, the spots are kept at a single level at the top of the limits, to make them seem louder.
But even when actual levels are consistent, the spots are kept at a single level at the top of the limits, to make them seem louder.
Ian
Paranormal Maven
Most of the podcasts I listen to have reasonable sound quality, including the Paracast. But as Gene says, the connection quality can be a problem for some of the contributors.
But amongst the worst for audio quality are still Don Ecker's podcasts. Yes I know they're free, have no commercials and I know he hasn't got pots of cash to install state-of-the-art gear, but his sound equipment must have some sort of basic audio monitoring meters allowing manual adjustment, even if there are no facilities for volume "normalization". Even the cheapest 1970's mixers from Radio Shack have VU metres to allow the operator to keep the levels of different channels, jingles, mics, etc. fairly constant.
The jingles are at one level, and his mic another, often at least 20 dB difference. His recent interview with Bob Kiviat nearly blew my ears off at one point near the start. And throughout the interview, Don's mic was turned up so high it distorted (again), although someone somewhere turned the distorted volume down. But the damage had already been done to the quality of Don's voice...
I may be doing Don a disservice. It may be something going on at Cyber Station of which Don has no control.
Nevertheless, despite my whining about the technical matters, I reckon Don's programmes and interviews are in the top three paranormal podcasts regarding content; he has good subjects, certainly knows his stuff and there are plenty of others out there that could listen and learn from him...
Ian
But amongst the worst for audio quality are still Don Ecker's podcasts. Yes I know they're free, have no commercials and I know he hasn't got pots of cash to install state-of-the-art gear, but his sound equipment must have some sort of basic audio monitoring meters allowing manual adjustment, even if there are no facilities for volume "normalization". Even the cheapest 1970's mixers from Radio Shack have VU metres to allow the operator to keep the levels of different channels, jingles, mics, etc. fairly constant.
The jingles are at one level, and his mic another, often at least 20 dB difference. His recent interview with Bob Kiviat nearly blew my ears off at one point near the start. And throughout the interview, Don's mic was turned up so high it distorted (again), although someone somewhere turned the distorted volume down. But the damage had already been done to the quality of Don's voice...
I may be doing Don a disservice. It may be something going on at Cyber Station of which Don has no control.
Nevertheless, despite my whining about the technical matters, I reckon Don's programmes and interviews are in the top three paranormal podcasts regarding content; he has good subjects, certainly knows his stuff and there are plenty of others out there that could listen and learn from him...
Ian